Don't Ever Look Back

Starred review from February 3, 2014
Edgar-finalist Friedman injects a darker tone into his alternately humorous and moving sequel to 2012’s Don’t Ever Get Old. In 1965, a master thief known as Elijah, a Jew who survived the Holocaust by doing whatever he needed to, invited series lead Buck Schatz, then an officer with the Memphis, Tenn., police department, to join a plot to rob a bank, hoping that their shared religion would make him agreeable. Schatz declined, but despite his best efforts to foil the robbery, and despite a seemingly impregnable bank vault, Elijah pulled off the heist. In 2009, Elijah resurfaces and tells the 88-year-old Schatz, who now resides in an assisted-living facility, “I need you to keep me safe as long as you’re able, and if I am killed, I want you to rain vengeance upon my enemies.” Though he has memory loss and hasn’t yet healed from injuries suffered in the first book, Schatz rises to the occasion. The howdunit of the 1965 crime will please Golden Age puzzle fans. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

April 1, 2014
Retired detective Buck Schatz continues to hunt bad guys and make life hell for the staff at Valhalla Estates Assisted Lifestyle Community for Older Adults. Buck doesn't like people messing with guys he knew back in the day. So when his redneck neighbor calls Buck's schizophrenic buddy, Crazy Mack, a bunch of racist names, Buck feels he has no choice but to whack the man's favorite rocking chair to bits with a hatchet, earning him a stern reprimand from Vivienne Wyatt, Valhalla's director of resident relations. But Elijah is another story. Back in 1965, Elijah tried sucking Buck into his big heist--ripping off Kluge Freights' payroll from the vault of the Cotton Planters Union Bank. A concentration camp survivor, Elijah maintained that Jews need to stick together and help each other because no one else will. But Buck didn't want to give the Memphis police department any reason to regret hiring the few Jewish cops it had. He turned Elijah down and beat the crap out of the Jewish co-conspirators, earning him a stern rebuke from Rabbi Abramsky on the eve of his son's bar mitzvah. Now Elijah is asking for Buck's help again. He's ready to turn himself in, and he needs someone to broker the deal. Buck turns to his one remaining contact in the Memphis police department, 26-year old Andre Price, to drive him and Elijah to the station, followed by Elijah's lawyer, Meyer Lefkowitz. Naturally it all goes south when Elijah disappears. With the help of his yuppie grandson, William "Tequila" Schatz, Buck must get his walker in gear and find out who's got the elderly safecracker and what he plans to do with him. A worthy successor to Buck's fine-tuned debut (Don't Ever Get Old, 2012).

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014

Still recovering from the nearly fatal injuries he suffered in his last outing, octogenarian Baruch "Buck" Schatz, a retired Memphis PD detective, is now residing at an assisted living home. In strolls the man known as Elijah, a nemesis from Buck's past; he was a notorious bank robber in Memphis and the two have a history going back to the mid-1960s. Now Elijah fears for his life, and he wants Buck's help. Deftly toggling back and forth between 1965 and the present, Friedman's narrative illuminates a story of Old Testament proportions, leaving us gasping along the way. Alas, Buck's grandson, William ("Tequila") only makes brief appearances, and my fingers are crossed he'll be back in full force next time. VERDICT Friedman's sophomore series entry for the angriest old cop you've ever met (after the Macavity Award-winning Don't Ever Get Old) doesn't disappoint. Through the violence (Buck's not a gentle guy) you'll be laughing with tears streaming down your face. It doesn't quite top the first title, but it's a fine sequel and a must-buy!

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
Friedman's geezer hero, retired Memphis cop Buck Schatz, tottered onto the noir stage with last year's Don't Ever Get Old and took command. He's a senior in the Harry Truman rage-don't-whine mode. Even in the retirement home where he and his wife have been dumped, he keeps a .357 close by. As with the earlier book, someone from the past has come for him: a clever villain who checkmated him then and is likely up to something now. Enjoy the plot, which even has a locked-room mystery packed into it. Savor the resonant prose as a reminder of how flabby much best-seller writing has become. Delight in Buck's deadpan humor, but don't fall for it. No codger cuteness here; his nastiness can shock. I'm a feral dog, he says, and means it. He heads to the final confrontation pushing a walker and packing a Magnum. He has his own sense of justice. Twice he quotes Sherlock Holmes, and like the Master, he would rather play tricks with the law than with his own conscience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)